Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I tried a new recipe this month already - a spin on the traditional green bean casserole, but I left out the "fried onions" it called for.  I used homemade mushroom soup as well. Recipe is from  Mennonite Girls Can Cook.   I adapted with organic ingredients, and of course, homemade condensed mushroom soup (it really is the best). Results:  We love this casserole!!  Of course we had the delight of trying it with freshly picked, homegrown asparagus, so it will be on the meal rotation, as well as a welcome substitute casserole for the traditional green bean casserole at the holidays. Note:  We both felt that 2 cups of asparagus were not enough.  I will be using more asparagus when we make this recipe again.   If you saw my last Christmas countdown post, you read that I was making something handmade for the advent gifts next. Here it is. . .  I made a hand crocheted item to add to the advent gifts this Christmas - Dust cloths.  Y...

Not much going on in the way of Christmas countdown, other than trying new recipes lately.  I am borrowing books from the library to do this fun research too (other than one recipe). I picked up one more advent gift, and it was a very good price.  A hand towel and hot pad set.  Yes, it's store made and not handmade, but it was perfect for an advent gift (useful and inexpensive ).  I'm working on the next gift, and it will be handmade. I am still trying to locate stores that offer paper bags.  I have plans to use them to wrap the advent gifts, but it's hard to find paper bags anymore.  I even visited one Wal-mart to find that brown craft paper on a roll.  Nope. Nothing.  I'll keep looking when I am out and about.   New Recipes Tried and my very first fruit cake! Butterscotch Shortbread.  I was very much intrigued to try this recipe, simply for the "butterscotch" in the title.  I made the recipe.  It sliced very nicely too. ...

  New Recipe Tried?  I had a recipe in the lineup to try, but after reading the "notes" I decided not to try it.  It was a Puppy Chow recipe, but used freshly made popcorn vs. store bought cereal.  It said to store it in the freezer and consume straight from the freezer.  Not really a winter go-to Christmas treat if you ask me.  The recipe stated the popcorn goes soft after you coat it, so hence we ditched the idea. However, I purchased a trial size of Christmas Jam to try.  I know it won't taste like a home canned jam, but if we like the taste, I may look into any good recipes similar to it. We do can a jelly at Christmas that everyone absolutely loves - it's a cinnamon/candy apple flavored jelly.  It's definitely not made with healthy ingredients (ha ha!), but I do not know one person who does not like it at Christmas. The jelly is called Cinnamon Cider Jelly - Recipe on my blog. I finally convinced my husband that we needed to visit the largest...